Here’s the latest roundup of the newest pre-candidacy filings that were submitted with the secretary of state’s office since I updated the 2016 Election Guide last week. You can find the guide here.

House of Delegates

The two-member 17th district, which is currently represented by Doug Reynolds (D) and Matthew Rohrbach (R), had a new name enter the potential race last week. Joe Fincham (D-Huntington) filed his pre-candidacy papers, making him the second Democrat to file in the race. Chad Lovejoy also of Huntington previously filed his paperwork. Beyond Rohrbach, who filed his pre-candidacy papers to run for re-election, no Republicans have filed. Reynolds has not filed any paperwork yet.

Tanya Walker Benbow (Clendenin) is the first Democrat to file papers in the 11th District, which is currently represented by Republican Martin Atkinson who was appointed following former Delegate Bob Ashley’s move to the state Senate. Atkinson has filed his pre-candidacy papers to run for re-election. Benbow and Atkinson are joined by Riley Keaton (R-Spencer) who previously filed.

Stephen Marshall Wilson (R-Hedgesville) became the first person to file pre-candidacy papers for the race in the 60th District. The district is currently represented by Larry Faircloth who has filed undeclared pre-candidacy papers. No Democrats have filed for the race yet.

State Senate

Brandon Barker (D-Williamson) is the first Democrat to file pre-candidacy papers to run in the 6th District. The seat is currently held by Republican Senate President Bill Cole, who is running for governor. Republican Chandler Swope (Princeton) is the only other person to file pre-candidacy papers for the race.

Categories

The countdown to primary election day continues and once again, there are whole host of new potential candidates.

Here’s the latest roundup of the newest pre-candidacy filings that were submitted with the secretary of state’s office since I updated the 2016 Election Guide last week. You can find the guide here.

House of Delegates

Martin Rick Atkinson III (R-Reedy) enters the District 11 race. Earlier this month, Atkinson was appointed to the House by Gov. Tomblin. Only one other candidate – Riley Keaton (R-Spencer) has filed pre-candidacy papers in the race.

Patrick S. Martin (R-Buckhannon) is the third Republican to join the race in District 46. The seat is currently held by Democrat Peggy Donaldson Smith, who has not filed pre-candidacy papers. The other Republicans seeking to win their party’s nomination include Derick Love (Jane Lew) and James Richard Atchison (Weston).

State Senate

Bob Plymale (D-Huntington) filed his pre-candidacy papers in hopes of being re-elected to represent the 5th District. No one else has filed paperwork yet.

Categories

To go along with my story in Wednesday’s Gazette-Mail, here’s an interactive map using data on overdoses in West Virginia for 2015.

By clicking on each county, you will see the total number of overdoses this year (through July), how many are attributed to heroin and the county’s overdose death rate (which is based off of 2014 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau).

It should be noted the data used in this map is preliminary and is subject to change, following the conclusion of toxicology reports.

The source was the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

Categories

This week gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice launched the first ads for West Virginia’s 2016 election, which you can view here.

The Gazette-Mail’s David Gutman interviewed Grant Herring, a spokesperson for Justice earlier this week, about the advertisements. Herring said the ad would air in “heavy rotation” in markets around the state but he declined to release the amount spent on the ad buy.

So I decided to find out.

This is kind of an arduous process but that’s all it is. It is not impossible thanks to the Federal Communications Commission’s political files. Essentially these “political files” are a library of information for every single political ad that runs on television. This includes ads on all levels – national, state and local.

Because I had some time today I looked up the political file for every TV station in West Virginia.

From there, I turned to the FCC’s political files, which are found here.

It was a bit of a process but here’s what I figured out about Justice’s ad buy:

For the week of Oct. 14 to Oct. 20, Justice spent $39,497 on more than 225 ads.

For the week of Oct. 21 to Oct. 27, Justice spent $41,494 on more than 228 ads.

Total those two up and Justice spent $80,991 on more than 453 ads that will air on 9 different television stations in West Virginia.

Why do I keep saying “more than” you might ask?

That’s because one station – WOWK – did not report exactly how many ads were purchased.

Every other station posted a breakdown of how many ads will run during which programs (in case you didn’t know the cost of ads changes depending on the program and the time it airs). WOWK has not posted said document – yet. It is possible they will add this to their FCC files.

Here’s a breakdown of how many adds were purchased at each station (with the area served and their network).

91 – WBOY (Clarksburg/NBC)

75 – WVVA (Beckley-Bluefield/NBC)

74 – WDTV (WDTV/CBS)

74 – WTRF (Wheeling/CBS)

69 – WSAZ (Charleston-Huntington/NBC)

48 – WCHS (Charleston-Huntington/ABC)

12 – WVFX (Clarksburg/FOX)

10 – WQCW (Charleston-Huntington/CW)

Again remember that WOWK is not on the list for the aforementioned reason.

Here’s a breakdown of the amount spent at each station:

$25,475 – WSAZ

$23,185 – WBOY

$10,535 – WVVA

$6,780 – WCHS

$5,850 – WDTV

$4,338 – WTRF

$2,720 – WOWK

$1,500 – WQCW

$608 – WVFX

The ads that will be airing for the next two weeks will be on a variety of different shows. They include morning, midday and evening news programs, late evening shows (Jimmy Kimmel, the Tonight Show, Late Show), game or reality shows (the Price is Right, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, the Voice, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Dancing with the Stars) and other TV programs (Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Inside Edition, Judge Judy, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, The Good Wife, Criminal Minds, Rizzoli and Isles and Nashville).

Categories

We are officially 109 days away from the last day when candidates can file their candidacy paperwork to run for office in 2016.

On the election side, we are 210 days away from West Virginia’s primary election (May 10) and 392 days away from the general election (Nov. 8).

Here’s the latest roundup of the newest pre-candidacy filings that were submitted with the secretary of state’s office since I updated the 2016 Election Guide last week. You can find the guide here.

Governor

James Brennan of Princeton became the 14th person (4 Democrats, 4 Republicans, 3 Independents, 1 Libertarian, 1 constitution, 1 unaffiliated) to file pre-candidacy papers to run for the state’s highest office. He filed as an independent on October 7.

House of Delegates

Riley Keaton (R-Spencer) joined the race in the 11th district, which was previously represented by Bob Ashley (R-Roane) who last month was appointed by the governor to fill David Nohe’s old seat.

James Merrill (D-Morgantown) joined the race in district 51. He becomes the fourth new candidate (three Democrats – John R. Williams, Michael Wolfe – and one Republican – Eric T.R. Finch) to enter the race.

The district is currently made up of four Republicans (Cindy Frich, Brian Kurchaba, Amanda Pasdon and Joe Statler) and one Democrat (Barbara Evans Fleischauer). Thus far Frich and Pasdon are the only incumbents who have not filed their pre-candidacy papers.

State Senate

Thomas H. Ewing (R-Hico) is the first challenger to enter the race in District 10, which is currently represented by Bill Laird (D-Fayette), who hasn’t filed his pre-candidacy papers yet.

Categories

Here are the newest pre-candidacy filings that were done since I last updated the 2016 Election Guide, which you can find elsewhere on this blog.

House of Delegates

Thomas C Combs (D-West Union) enters the 6th district race for the seat currently held by Delegate William Romine (R-West Union), who previously filed pre-candidacy papers to seek re-election.

Billy Jack Chaffin II (D-Barboursville) enters the 18th district race for the seat currently held by Delegate Kelli Sobonya (R-Barboursville). Sobonya is running for re-election and no one else has entered the race.

Rod Snyder (D-Shepherdstown) enters the 67th district race for the seat currently held by Delegate Stephen Skinner (D-Shepherdstown), who is running for state Senate. Also running are Republicans Daniel Swisher (Harpers Ferry) and Riley M. Moore (Harpers Ferry).

State Senate

Greg Smith (D-Parkersburg) enters the 3rd district race for the seat currently held by Donna Boley (R-Mineral Wells), who has filed to run for re-election. Samuel Winans (R-Parkersburg) is the only other potential candidate to previously enter the race.

U.S. House of Representatives

Marc Savitt (R-Martinsburg) enters the 2nd district race for the seat currently held by Alex Mooney (R). Mooney is expected to run for re-election. Fellow Republican Kenneth Reed (Charleston) has previously filed paperwork.

Judges

Christopher Workman (Chapmanville – Family Court Judge)

Theresa Cogar Turner (Elkins – Family Court Judge)

Carrie Webster (Charleston – Circuit Court Judge)

Attorney General

Mark A Hunt (D-Charleston) becomes the second Democrat to enter race seeking to challenge incumbent candidate Patrick Morrisey (R-Charleston), who is running for re-election. Democrat David Higgins previously filed papers to run.